Imperial or Metric?
- Thread starter MOIC
- Start date
Metric v Imperial.
I was born in the mid 50’s. I had a Saturday job in a shop when we shifted from Lsd to £.p. I can remember telling an older lady that her washing up cloth cost sixpence. She gave me a tanner (2.5p/6d). I had to explain it was 1 and tuppence ha’penny…..
I never had more than 5 minutes confusion between Lsd and £.p primarily, I would argue, because it changed completely. There was a short period of ‘duality’ but metric money was absolute within a couple of years of being introduced. No-one struggles with it.
Yet I cannot remmber how metrically tall I am (5’1″) or how much I weigh metrically (not saying). I have a rough idea how much a kilo of apples is compared with a pound of apples. I use metric weights when cooking.
I firmly believe that if we had the sense to use metric only for everything in the 70’s I would know that the speed limit is xKPH not 70MPH. I cannot grasp it because we have used tandem measurements for the last 40 odd years.
WHY does anyone think we should continue that stupidity?
I was born in the mid 50’s. I had a Saturday job in a shop when we shifted from Lsd to £.p. I can remember telling an older lady that her washing up cloth cost sixpence. She gave me a tanner (2.5p/6d). I had to explain it was 1 and tuppence ha’penny…..
I never had more than 5 minutes confusion between Lsd and £.p primarily, I would argue, because it changed completely. There was a short period of ‘duality’ but metric money was absolute within a couple of years of being introduced. No-one struggles with it.
Yet I cannot remmber how metrically tall I am (5’1″) or how much I weigh metrically (not saying). I have a rough idea how much a kilo of apples is compared with a pound of apples. I use metric weights when cooking.
I firmly believe that if we had the sense to use metric only for everything in the 70’s I would know that the speed limit is xKPH not 70MPH. I cannot grasp it because we have used tandem measurements for the last 40 odd years.
WHY does anyone think we should continue that stupidity?
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Use the most appropriate. We even mix them - plasterboard is 2.4m x 1.2, MDF is 2.44 x 1.22m because it is still 8ft x 4ft. Worse, you can buy 2"x1" timber sold in 2.4m lengths.
When I was teaching in colleges, I always asked the students if they wanted me to talk in metric or inches/feet (You can't say Imperial, they've never heard of that). Some years it would be metric, but then the year after, back to feet and inches. Most people can do a pretty decent in-head swap - 500ml is a pint, a metre is a yard - but Anne Diamond said this morning on GB News she learned the 14 times table at school because of 14lbs in a stone.
If you tell kids the old systems they think we are mad - pounds, ounces, stones, pence, threepence, sixpence, shilling, two florins, half-crowns, crowns, guinneas - metric is clearly a superior system for maths and computers - how would they cope with silly measurements?
The other thing of course is that for technology use of measurement at higher accuracy, you have to metricate imperial. We have thousandth of inches for engineering work. To do some processes you need to be able to use a calculator or computer - you cannot do this effectively with sizes such as 6 and 7 eighths. For engineering old things in imperial, you end up using printed tables. The Americans are now using metric in newer products. It's nice to be able to buy a quarter of sweeties, but 100g is similar really.
Metric is sensible. We all talk about miles per gallon happily, but we haven't bought in gallons for years, and who can convert the litres of fuel purchased to gallons in their headband then divide it by the miles travelled?
The idea of us being imperial is fine, but do we really want to throw away the benefits?
When I was teaching in colleges, I always asked the students if they wanted me to talk in metric or inches/feet (You can't say Imperial, they've never heard of that). Some years it would be metric, but then the year after, back to feet and inches. Most people can do a pretty decent in-head swap - 500ml is a pint, a metre is a yard - but Anne Diamond said this morning on GB News she learned the 14 times table at school because of 14lbs in a stone.
If you tell kids the old systems they think we are mad - pounds, ounces, stones, pence, threepence, sixpence, shilling, two florins, half-crowns, crowns, guinneas - metric is clearly a superior system for maths and computers - how would they cope with silly measurements?
The other thing of course is that for technology use of measurement at higher accuracy, you have to metricate imperial. We have thousandth of inches for engineering work. To do some processes you need to be able to use a calculator or computer - you cannot do this effectively with sizes such as 6 and 7 eighths. For engineering old things in imperial, you end up using printed tables. The Americans are now using metric in newer products. It's nice to be able to buy a quarter of sweeties, but 100g is similar really.
Metric is sensible. We all talk about miles per gallon happily, but we haven't bought in gallons for years, and who can convert the litres of fuel purchased to gallons in their headband then divide it by the miles travelled?
The idea of us being imperial is fine, but do we really want to throw away the benefits?
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Metric is only minimal in the Former United States of America, with regard to construction. I charge a Hefty Premium for FUSA work that has to be done in Imperial. Rather like Cyndy I experienced the use of Imperial and Metric running in parallel - However, I have never used a Fluid Ounce, nor a British Thermal Unit!
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Many factories, scientific organisations and research facilities use metric. A chap I know supervises a shampoo factory and everything is done in metric. Even the bottles are metric. It’s just the labels that show fluid ounces.
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Like most people, I use a curious mix of both.
For most things, I use metric. Until I want to know how fast I am going.
I buy diesel in litres, but will tell you how efficient my car is using mpg.
What Boris is doing here is trying to stir the emotions of the more silly and jingoistic of his supporters. 'Reverting' to imperial is a silly idea. Having some kind of review is just spaffing away your money again, as all governments like to do.
Carrying on as we are with it being a non issue, other than the 4 people still angry about decimalisation - yup, that seems expedient.
For most things, I use metric. Until I want to know how fast I am going.
I buy diesel in litres, but will tell you how efficient my car is using mpg.
What Boris is doing here is trying to stir the emotions of the more silly and jingoistic of his supporters. 'Reverting' to imperial is a silly idea. Having some kind of review is just spaffing away your money again, as all governments like to do.
Carrying on as we are with it being a non issue, other than the 4 people still angry about decimalisation - yup, that seems expedient.
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- Original Poster
- #20
The US adopted our system when we colonised North America. Like they've done with our language, they've tweaked the system to suit their taste.
The imperial system is still used, by and large by the public, although for international commodities they export, they will use the metric system.
Changing from imperial to metric is all to do with costs, so successive governments hoped it would happen organically . . . . . . . which means it will never happen.
The imperial system is still used, by and large by the public, although for international commodities they export, they will use the metric system.
Changing from imperial to metric is all to do with costs, so successive governments hoped it would happen organically . . . . . . . which means it will never happen.
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And of course who can forget
www.simscale.com
The navigation team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) used the metric system of millimeters and meters in its calculations, while Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, Colorado, which designed and built the spacecraft, provided crucial acceleration data in the English system of inches, feet, and pounds. JPL engineers did not take into consideration that the units had been converted, i.e., the acceleration readings measured in English units of pound-seconds^2 for a metric measure of force called newton-seconds^2. In a sense, the spacecraft was lost in translation.
How NASA Lost Its Mars Climate Orbiter From a Metric Error
The Mars Climate Orbiter was launched by NASA in 1998 to study the Martian atmosphere and surface changes but was lost due to a metric error.
www.simscale.com
The navigation team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) used the metric system of millimeters and meters in its calculations, while Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, Colorado, which designed and built the spacecraft, provided crucial acceleration data in the English system of inches, feet, and pounds. JPL engineers did not take into consideration that the units had been converted, i.e., the acceleration readings measured in English units of pound-seconds^2 for a metric measure of force called newton-seconds^2. In a sense, the spacecraft was lost in translation.
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When measuring stuff for DIY I often use both. De
Same here. For small precision jobs metric all the time. For larger jobs inches are often sufficient.
Probably 44mm x 20.5mm if planed, 47mm x 22mm if sawn.
Same here. For small precision jobs metric all the time. For larger jobs inches are often sufficient.
Worse still, it's not even 2"x1"
Probably 44mm x 20.5mm if planed, 47mm x 22mm if sawn.
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T
The Byre
Just to muddy the waters, I know of another country where both are used - Germany!
Yep! Germany. Plumbers talk of halbzoll Rohr and dreiviertelzoll Rohr (half-inch pipe and three-quarter-inch pipe) and will write that 1/2" and 3/4" just as you do. Also, don't be surprised to hear an order for "Ein Pfund Hackfleisch bitter!" at the butcher when a housewife wants a metric pound of mince (500 grams).
Admittedly, metric weights were abolished in Germany in 1884, but not for gold and silver where they are measured in ounces or Unzen in German.
And then we have distance measurements and miles and sea miles - giving us knots or in German Knoten - which is handy because a sea mile is roughly 2km.
EDIT - 10 only has the factors 2 and 5, whereas 12 has 2, 3, 4 & 6. A world in which all numbers were units of twelve and not ten would have been better and a good deal simpler.
Yep! Germany. Plumbers talk of halbzoll Rohr and dreiviertelzoll Rohr (half-inch pipe and three-quarter-inch pipe) and will write that 1/2" and 3/4" just as you do. Also, don't be surprised to hear an order for "Ein Pfund Hackfleisch bitter!" at the butcher when a housewife wants a metric pound of mince (500 grams).
Admittedly, metric weights were abolished in Germany in 1884, but not for gold and silver where they are measured in ounces or Unzen in German.
And then we have distance measurements and miles and sea miles - giving us knots or in German Knoten - which is handy because a sea mile is roughly 2km.
EDIT - 10 only has the factors 2 and 5, whereas 12 has 2, 3, 4 & 6. A world in which all numbers were units of twelve and not ten would have been better and a good deal simpler.
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Of course, a US gallon is different to a UK gallon.
And let's not start on the oil industry, where most things are measured in barrels...
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